Monday, October 24, 2011

The War for Your Living Room

The home video entertainment war between monolithic cable companies and new, cloud-based, "over-the-top" services, has just begun. Until just recently, cable companies owned your living room, and their "pipes and boxes" were the only conduits delivering TV and Movie entertainment to your television set. Those who didn't want to pay cable service premium fees opted to rent physical DVDs from physical DVD retail stores. Cable fought back with On Demand rentals through the television set-top-box. At that moment, the dominant "pipe" carrying the entertainment signal was the one connected to the box that sits atop your TV.

Today, the new entertainment pipe is the one connected to your computer. Via the cloud, it is wirelessly transmitting entertainment to all your connected devices. Technology has enabled a wide array of cloud-based entertainment options to consumers. In this new world, some are opting to "cut the cord" to their set-top-boxes, and choosing to pay for exactly what they want to watch.

Well, not exactly...

The reality of the situation, is that most over-the-top entertainment services lack the content deals that cable companies have garnered through years of relationship-building with networks and studios. So, cable companies are utilizing these relationships to maintain their viability with consumers. A new threat is emerging, however. Some consumers still do not wish to pay premium fees to access hundreds of channels, when all they really want is two or three. Recognizing this, studios are beginning to offer their content directly to consumers, bypassing the cable "middle-man." Studios and networks have begun to go "over-the-top," delivering cloud-based entertainment services via the web, and through mobile device applications.

In order to survive in this new video entertainment landscape, cable companies have few options:

1. Provide more flexible packages and pricing - the main reason why consumers abandon cable TV is because it is expensive. Additionally, you pay for lots of channels you may never watch. If cable companies could figure out how to remain profitable and provide more flexible and relevant service options, they may be more successful in reducing the number of customers who "cut the cord."

2. Re-brand themselves as "entertainment passports" - "Cable TV" is antiquated branding. It reeks of old technology, and places emphasis on the pipe, NOT the entertainment. What is a cable company, then, without the "cable?" It is a set of credentials that enables customers to access the most robust video entertainment, leveraging the relationships that the company has with networks and studios.

3. Unchain themselves from the "set-top-box" - the biggest threat to the cable box isn't a connected iPad or iPhone, it is a connected TV. Yes, consumers are watching video, via over-the-top services on their mobile devices. However, the majority are still watching movies and TV shows on their TV. Cord cutters are using IP enabled boxes to access over-the-top entertainment services directly on their TVs, but that won't be necessary in the near future, when most TVs will access the Internet directly. In that scenario, cable companies must be prepared to offer "over-the-top" service, that can be accessed without a set-top-box.

4. Create brand loyalty with the next generation of "bill payers" - Cable companies need to build a brand with a younger demographic, because it is this demographic who is adopting "over-the-top" services for video entertainment. Many of these consumers do not even have TVs, and are only watching video on their laptops or other mobile screens. Most are on Facebook, and even consuming video entertainment on social network platforms. Cable companies have to integrate with the platforms that are widely adopted by this young demographic.

5. Monitor usage and deliver personalized services - The thing about cable, is that it is mostly "unidirectional." It is difficult to analyze usage patterns for the purpose of service optimization, customization, and personalization. Cloud-based services are increasingly leveraging usage data, via the Internet, to deliver personalized recommendations to consumers. Cable companies must figure out how to deliver "custom entertainment channels" that provide more relevant entertainment to their customers.

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

Sunday, October 09, 2011

The Importance of Storytelling to UX Design

As web sites and web applications become increasingly modular in their construction, Designers run the risk of creating applications that consist of an endless, near random, stack of modules. This situation is common to many ecommerce experiences. Because it is widely accepted that users "will scroll," there seems to be a willingness to stack modules on top of modules, endlessly, with no sense of hierarchy, or logical narrative.

Take a Step Back to Plan
A key theme to many of my blog entries is the need to plan. Planning is fundamental to Design. When designing the UX of an application, planning needs to happen at many levels. Core user experience planning happens after an assessment of end-user needs, as a result of qualitative behavioral research. In addition to that, however, there needs to be planning from business stakeholders, which should result in a marketing and content strategy. It is a combination of the user needs assessment and the business' content strategy, that results in the framework, or user experience strategy, of a web site or application.

What's the Overall Story?
I've used some jargon to describe the building blocks of the user experience of a web site or application. Really, it boils down to this:

1. What do users expect from the experience?
2. What story does the business want to convey to its users?

A business can enjoy great freedom in storytelling, as long as users can intuitively get what they expect or need from the user experience. The sad fact is, not many businesses are great at telling stories online.

Each Page Tells a Story
The underlying information architecture of an application is the outline of a novel, but each page or screen of the experience tells it's own story. It is important to map these narratives, at the page-level, before engaging in interaction design. Block out regions of each key screen, using low-fidelity wireframes. That will help you define the story that you are telling on each page.

Simplify and Engage
Ernest Hemingway was straightforward and understated. Anne Rice is ornate and rich with detail. When designing for the web, you'll want to lean more towards Ernest. Excessive visual design and content can quickly obscure your story. Make sure that doesn't happen, by creating pages that have real structure, modules that are introduced with bold headers, and copy that is brief and infused with the personality of the brand.

Your web site or application should be a platform for your business to have a conversation with your users. Architect it as such.

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Usability and Engagement: Success Metrics of Design

In an age where every consumer interaction with a brand is measurable across multiple digital channels, it is important to understand which metrics and measures are valuable to you, based upon your role in a business. It is a common mistake to measure everything, at regular intervals, without an understanding of how to make these measurements actionable. Data holds different meaning to different individuals within an organization. It may be used to inform marketing tactics, advertising spending, product development, or user interface design decisions.

Design Measurement
I am a user experience designer, so I will focus on the measurements and research used to assess the success or failure of a Design, within a digital context. User experience designers need to understand how to analyze the user interface of digital applications, in order to assess:

1. The usability of the Design

2. The Design's level of engagement

Usability -
Individuals visit web sites and download applications to achieve specific tasks. User experience designers spend time with these individuals, prior to conceptualizing a Design of an application or web site, to better understand and document the relevant tasks of these individuals. The easier it is for end-users of an application to achieve the tasks that they came to perform, the better the Usability of that application's design and user interface.

Usability Testing-
User experience designers encourage a business to perform Design validation of key elements of an application or web site's Design (usability testing), in order to ensure that anticipated, end-user tasks can be easily completed. Usability testing is a process by which UX Designers recruit participants, who are representative of the target, end-user segment for the Design, and observe them trying to complete key tasks, using the Design. The level of frustration that end-users exhibit, as well as their rate of success or failure, in attempting to complete key tasks, ultimately determines the usability of the Design. Measuring usability, typically, does not require a statistically significant sample size, however, new, online Usability Testing tools do allow for larger populations.

Engagement -
While usability is certainly an important criterion for a Design's success, it is merely "table-stakes." That's because a Design that is highly "Usable" does not ensure that it will be widely adopted by consumers. Therefore, It is also important to measure the level of engagement of the Design.

Engagement Analytics -
Measuring the level of adoption of an application can be done at many levels. This type of measurement is quantitative, and requires a large amount of data. At a high-level, marketers should benchmark the amount of traffic that an application receives, and set goals/projections for a redesigned application interface. However, marketers will need to isolate the key screens that have been redesigned, or new features that have been added to the application, to begin to understand if the new Design is driving engagement and adoption.

Brand Perception and Awareness -
A great way to understand if new products, applications, or Design is affecting the popularity or perception of a brand, is to take the brand's pulse through social media measurement. There are now, four conventional key performance indicators (KPI) that are used to gauge a brand's reach and perception (taken from the online tool, socialmention.com)

1. Strength - likelihood that the brand is being discussed in social media

2. Sentiment - ratio of positive to negative mentions in social media

3. Passion - likelihood of individuals repeatedly mentioning the brand in social media

4. Reach - measurement of the range of the brand's influence in social media

As with any other quantitative measurement, benchmarks should be taken prior to new Design enhancements, or the introduction of new marketing campaigns, products, applications, etc. Projections should also be made, based on business objectives. Marketers may, then, effectively utilize these key performance indicators to assess the impact, level of engagement, and likely adoption of brand enhancements (including Design changes).

Jonathan Lupo - http://www.twitter.com/userexperience